The Society for Practising Veterinary Surgeons (SPVS), in partnership with the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons’ Mind Matters Initiative (MMI), is looking for practices that are going above and beyond to support staff wellbeing for this year’s Vet Wellbeing Awards.
There are three award categories that practices can enter depending on the number of employees: small practice (15 or fewer full time equivalent team members (FTE), medium practice (16 to 50 FTEs) or large practice (51 or FTEs).
The application form covers six key aspects of work that, if well-managed, can promote wellbeing and reduce the risk of work-related stress, and the Award judges will be looking for evidence of commitment to enhancing wellbeing for each of these.
These are:
- Promoting physical and psychological health at work
- Relationships at work
- Communication at work
- Career development
- Workload and work scheduling
- Work demand
For the first time, feedback will be provided to practices that enter on areas where they are doing well and also areas where they can improve. It is hoped that this update to the awards process will further help practices to view wellbeing support as an area of continuous development.
In addition to the Wellbeing Awards, the RCVS and SPVS are also running the Practice Star nominations, which are open to all veterinary practices.
There is no judging process for these nominations. To enter, practices need to send in their nominee’s name, job title and contact details, and a short paragraph explaining why they have been chosen. They will then receive a certificate congratulating them for being nominated as the practice’s very own ‘Practice Wellbeing Star’.
Lisa Quigley manager Mind Matters, said: “The Vet Wellbeing Awards celebrate the positive initiatives that practices are running to improve wellbeing in their workplaces, as well as celebrating a strong focus on wellbeing overall. They aim to highlight practical examples of how wellbeing is integrated into the successful running of practices.”
The closing date for both the Wellbeing Award entries and Practice Star nominations is 22 November 2019.
